This invention pertains to the field of flavorants and particularly pertains to flavorants which impart cooked meat flavor to foodstuffs. More specifically, the present invention is concerned with the preparation of meat flavorants having increased flavor and aromatic intensity and which more closely resemble the natural flavor and aroma of cooked meat.
The desirability of providing flavoring agents which closely simulate the flavor and aromatic characteristics of cooked meat has long been recognized. Such flavoring agents may, for example, be employed with non-meat sources of protein so as to make them more palatable and as meat-like as possible. So, too, they may also be employed with meat-containing or meat-based foods or vegetable-type foodstuffs such as condensed soups, dried meats, packaged gravies, casseroles, etc., in order to supplement or enhance these foods whose organoleptic properties may have been affected by their processing.
Various expedients have been suggested in the prior art in attempts to provide flavoring agents having the organoleptic profile of cooked meat.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,571,342 teaches that a flavoring composition with charred meaty notes can be prepared by subjecting a film of fat or oil to a temperature within the range of 154° C. to 475° C. in the presence of oxygen for an effective period of time, followed by collecting the fat or oil.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,820,538 discloses a process of producing a charcoal broiled flavor by distributing a heated fat or oil as a thin film, which is exposed to a temperature of at least 600° F. for a period of time less than 2 min. to exothermically heat the fat to at least 650° F. and thereafter rapidly cooling the flavor product to a temperature less than 220° F., a minor fraction of the exothermically heated oil being spent as waste vapor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,496,579 discloses a process and apparatus for producing flavor compositions by subjecting a thin film of fat or oil to an elevated temperature of about 600° F. in the presence of oxygen. The elevated temperature causes the oil to fat to undergo a phase change to produce an exothermic gaseous material. The gaseous material is cooled rapidly to produce a liquid phase and a vapor containing an aerosol. The liquid phase is collected as a first flavorant and the vapor phase through a condenser to recover the aerosol as a flavorant with a more intense grill flavor. The remaining smoke or vapor is exhausted from the apparatus to remove the tarry and acrid flavor notes.